The hotly contested and world famous high score for Donkey Kong has once again been broken, this time by a newer face. Competitive gamer Robbie Lakeman broke the record Thursday, knocking off former champion Hank Chien by 3,200 points. From Donkey Kong Blog:
Late on Friday evening, with rumors and speculation swirling, a crowd gathered in Lakeman’s Twitch channel as it wordlessly came to life. A nearly silent, awkwardly-angled, “TV cam” rebroadcast of the previous night’s three-hour performance began.
A less-than-ideal presentation, but more than enough to electrify the Donkey Kong faithful as they realized what was unfolding. Nobody knew what the final score would be, only that they were about to witness arcade gaming history.
1,141,800, as it turned out. A number that will hold very little meaning to those unschooled in the Donkey Kong dark arts, but Lakeman’s 3,200 point-lead over Chien finally brings to an end the reign of the player who spent four years terrorizing the top spot by beating his own top score again and again, and who some suspected might never be defeated.
Competitive gaming gained plenty of notoriety after the release The King Of Kong, a documentary that followed the quest for the Donkey Kong high score by legendary gamer Billy Mitchell and challenger Steve Wiebe. Both traded high scores until Chien came to claim the top spot and hold it.
Now Lakeman is the Kong champion, sure to be challenged, defeated, triumphant, and then defeated again numerous times over. It’s something I don’t understand, but whatever floats your boat. I’m sure people would go nuts over it if there were achievements, much like I did in the comments section when that was a thing.
You can take a look at the world record attempt below, but they weren’t kidding about it looking terrible. It seems to have been shot on some sort of tinted window with a Salvador Dali lens smeared with Vaseline. But the record is there and it does happen around the three hour mark.
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(Via Polygon / The Verge / Donkey Kong Blog)